Explosion welding: process evolution and parameters optimization

The development of explosion welding (EXW) technology underwent a stop as soon as it was introduced, however, in the recent years an increasing interest was found due to the wide range of materials which can be welded, similar and especially dissimilar ones. In addition to the high quality, such welded joints show a good compromise among the involved materials properties. Literature does not provide a comprehensive understanding of the whole mechanism and occurring phenomena but is mostly limited to analyse just some process parameters, like the investigations on joint properties that can be achieved if process takes place under vacuum or open air. In this work some key points are discussed to describe the evolution step of the process and the innovations introduced like the MIL (metallic-intermetallic laminate) composites for aerospace industry. Process parameters are analyzed to highlight the positive and negative aspects, the experiments in the laboratory will be described to confine the explosion to the joint and in particular to minimize the explosion energy and to improve the efficiency of the technique. At last some significant applications where this technique is widely used are showed.